?Let?s make it look all new but use our money judiciously,? said exterior design director Richard Ferlazzo.

?Coming or going this car is going to look completely different.?

Holden design director Andrew Smith said there was a focus on two main vehicle types for the VF Commodore ? ?sport luxury and luxury sport?.

The first revealed today was the Calais V, with the sportier SS models due to be shown later in the week.

?A traditional rear-wheel-drive car is no longer a jack of all trades,? said Smith. ?What it really means is we can focus on developing the kind of car we want to develop for the people who want the car.

?Rather than doing so many variants we?ve really come down from a design perspective to two distinct flavours: sport luxury, luxury sport - two sides of the same coin."

The nose has more sculpted headlights along with LED daytime running lights on all but the base model.

While the muscular wheel arches ? housing up to 20-inch wheels, as now fitted to the Calais V ? remain, the side air vents behind the wheels have been redesigned with a more upmarket flavour.

The bonnet ? now made of aluminium to reduce weight (therefore improving fuel economy and performance) ? has defined lines flowing along it, including a central bulge designed to emphasise the power of the engine.

At the rear the bootlid looks lower, part of some clever design work designed to give the appearance of a broader car ? and one that will ?look more planted on the road?, according to Ferlazzo.

Tail lights are long and wide, splicing into the bootlid and reinforcing that wider appearance.

Relocating the number plate to the lower bumper also helps give the VF a new look.

That wider tail with some sharper surfaces ? even the tail lights have crisper ?false? edges on them to direct the air flow ? is all about creating a more slippery shape.

Aerodynamics were a key focus of the VF Commodore, with even the underneath of the car smoothed and optimised for a cleaner air flow.

The drag co-efficient target ? believed to have been beaten ? was 0.30, which is noticeably down on the 0.33 figure of the VE the car replaces.

For now Holden has only revealed the look of the more luxurious Calais V variant, which will form a large chunk of its more intense push into the private buyer market that has proved elusive to Holden as buyers rush to imported brands, luxury models and SUVs.

The new VF Commodore will also be available in three new colours; "Regal Peacock" is a deep metallic green; "Prussian Steel" also has green tinges in a light metallic silver finish; "Fantale" is a new bright orange that will work as the hero colour for the VF Commodore range.

The reveal of the new VF Commodore will be carefully orchestrated over coming months as the media is slowly drip-fed information designed to maximise coverage and build up interest in the nameplate that topped the sales charts for 15 straight years but has since plummeted to less than one-third of its peak.